Thing 12

My colleague drew my attention to cpd23 and I confess without her suggesting it  I wouldn't be participating in it as I wouldn't have been aware of it.  Taking part in cp23 is opening my eyes to the use of social networking in a work content and how beneficial it can be. I am going to look at many more sites through my google reader and try and keep up with all the changes that are happening.

Thing 11

I was mentored when I did my chartership report  when I first started work as a librarian, My chartership report spanned two jobs first as an Assistant Librarian in a large London law firm and then as an Information Officer in a large London firm of accountants and management consultants. It was very useful for me to have the input from more experienced librarians. I haven't had the opportunity to mentor  anyone as the people I have worked with haven't been at the stage in their careers to require it.

Thing 10

At the end of Thing 10 we are asked to blog about our experiences as a librarian so far. I have worked for many years in the field of law librarianship and in the same firm for 21 years. There have been massive changes in relation to the introduction of new technology and the impact it has had on my work. It has made my work more varied in many ways with so many more information sources available to us. Technology is changing the way we work and we are having to adapt to meet the needs of our users who are more demanding and are expecting everything to be at their finger tips or available to them through Google.

Thing 5

I am a bit out of order with this one but Thing 5 has been helpful for me. I started off by looking back at what I had done so far in cpd23. I am more aware of my online presence with this being the first blog I have written and also thinking about LinkedIn and Twitter. I have also found it very interesting looking at other people's blogs and have have added a few new sites to my google reader. I have read about reflective practice in its broader sense and am looking forward to putting this into practice in my daily work, particularly answering enquiries. It is so easy when you are busy just to keep going and not taking time to step back and think about what you have done and how you could improve  for the next time.

Thing 7

I joined the Scottish Law Librarians Group when I moved up from London to Edinburgh to start a new job. I was new to Scots Law and it was a huge help to me working as a solo librarian in a new city to have support from fellow law librarians.  As well as the formal SLLG meetings I made friends through the group and we still meet up informally.. When I worked in London I was a member of BIALL and continued to be a member in Edinburgh and go to many of the conferences which I really enjoyed and found a good way of keeping in touch.

Thing 6

Well here I am at Thing 6. I already have a Facebook page which I just use for personal stuff eg for posting a few photos etc.  I have recently got a LinkedIn account and, as well as linking with  people I know currently, I have reconnected with some from college days and previous employment which has been interesting.  I am giong to try and keep building up my connections on LinkedIn. The other networks mentioned for Thing 6 I have not used as yet.

Thing 3 to Thing 5

I have been away so just catching up. I have altered my blog page so it looks a bit better and found the library shelves background which I liked on someone else's blog. I do have a Twitter account but still haven't done my first tweet - must try and do this soon.  I use Google reader for the RSS feeds and that is a good way of keeping up with what is happening.